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Let me start with some facts and figures for 2023 from Open Doors – an organisation that supports persecuted Christians worldwide. Their research found that 365 million Christians face high or extreme levels of persecution. That’s 1 in 7 of all Christians. 5,000 were killed for their faith in Jesus – 90% of those in Nigeria. 4,000 Christians were abducted for their faith in Jesus. And 15,000 church buildings were attacked or closed – 2/3 of those in China. The Open Doors World Watch List catalogues the top 50 countries where it’s hardest for Christians. Number one is North Korea, and then thinking of countries represented among us this morning: number six is Nigeria, 9. Iran, 11. India, and 19. China. That puts our experience into perspective, but it is becoming harder to be a Christian in this country, too. Which all begs the question: why does God allow it? Why does he allow so much evil in general? And why does he allow so much evil against those who believe in him, in particular?

Well that’s what God’s Old Testament people Israel were asking at the beginning of the book of Exodus. So as we continue this series, would you turn in the Bibles to page 48, which will get you to Exodus 5. We’re in the part of the Bible that came before Jesus and which pointed forward to Jesus – the part we call the Old Testament. And in Old Testament time, God created a people to make himself known to, to prepare them for Jesus’ coming. But as we’ve seen, at the beginning of Exodus, God’s people were in Egypt, in slavery, and asking why God was allowing that. And in answer, God called Moses, and God told him he was about to rescue his people from Egypt, and that he was going to use Moses to do the necessary talking to Pharoah, the king of Egypt. Which brings us to Exodus 5.1:

Afterwards Moses and Aaron [Moses’ brother and assistant] went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”

And you can sense their faith and boldness, can’t you? After suffering in Egypt in a way that would certainly have made it into the Open Doors World Watch List, The LORD was finally going to get them out of there. But here’s where they come down to earth with a sickening bump. Which is why my headline for Exodus 5 is:

1. When evil looks strong and God looks weak

Look on to Exodus 5.2:

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

In other words, ‘I don’t know your tin pot little god of Israel. And even if he’s god in Israel, he’s not god here in Egypt – I am. So if you think you and your god can tell me what to do, you’ve got another thing coming.’ Exodus 5.3-4:

Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” [Not so bold or commanding any more] But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.”

And, as we heard in our reading, their slave labour of brick-making was made even harder by the Egyptians saying ‘We’ll no longer supply you with the straw you need. You’ll have to find it yourself.’ And by the way, this matches exactly with what we know from other historical sources from the time. We know there was no stone for building in the Nile Delta. We know the Pharaohs used foreign slaves to make bricks from mud, and then build towns. We even know of the system in this chapter – of Egyptian taskmasters kicking slave foremen, so they in turn would kick their fellow-slaves. And so things in Exodus 5 go from bad to worse – and they move to the top of the Open Doors World Watch List. So skip to Exodus 5.20-23:

They [that is, the Israelite foremen] met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? [Have you ever asked God that kind of question? When it feels like he hasn’t just allowed evil but done evil to you or someone else?] Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people [which is more true – God hasn’t done it, but he’s allowed Pharaoh to do it], and you have not delivered your people at all.”

So this is one of the many times when evil looks strong and God looks weak. Just look back to Exodus 5.2:

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord...”

And at one level, Pharaoh stands for any human being since the fall because in our fallenness, or sinfulness as the Bible puts it, that’s what we all do say to God, by nature: ‘Who are you that I should obey you? I don’t recognise your authority over my life – I’ll run it my own way, thanks very much.’ And maybe that’s what you’re still saying to God this morning. While every Christian here will admit that’s what we’re still tempted to say when we find obedience hard. So at one level, Pharaoh stands for any human being. But of course, he wasn’t just any human being: he was the ruler of millions of people and had god-like power over them. And you see that implied in Exodus 5.10, for example:

So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh…

Which is a deliberate echo of Moses saying Thus says the LORD…And so at another level, Pharaoh stands for any rulers and regimes that think they have god-like power and try to demand absolute allegiance. As we’ll see in coming chapters, Pharoah’s power was all mixed up with religion, with (quote) the gods of Egypt. And sometimes absolute regimes are religious, like that – for example, a fully Islamic state, where you can say God (or rather Allah) is the government. But sometimes absolute regimes are atheistic – for example, China, where you can say the secular government is ‘god’ (with a small g). And something of that situation is going on here because, as the Christian journalist Peter Hitchins says (quote):

A new state atheism, and the morality that goes with it, is being imposed on us through the Equality Act.

So at one level, Pharaoh stands for any human being. At another level he stands for any rulers and regimes that think they have god-like power and try to demand absolute allegiance. But the New Testament tells us that behind such rulers and regimes stands Satan,or the devil, himself. Just listen to Ephesians 6.12:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

So that’s saying: we do wrestle with human rulers (flesh and blood) demanding allegiance that belongs to Jesus alone – but there’s more to it than that. Because behind rulers and regimes like Pharoah stands Satan and the spiritual powers of evil. And if you find that hard to believe, it’s worth quoting a former Archbishop who said:

How unwise for our modern culture to deny the existence of the devil when he is actually the best explanation of it.

So that’s Exodus 5: when evil looks strong and God looks weak: which is often the case: which is why we need Exodus 6 – for which my headline is:

2. Where to look to know what God is really like

Because if we just look at our experience, to try to read off that what God is like, it all gets very ambiguous doesn’t it? Because in good times, we read off that he’s good. But what about in bad times, what about in awful times? Where do we look at all times to know what God is really like? Well, look down to Exodus 6.1:

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh…”

And there’s all the significance in the world in that now: ‘Now that I’ve allowed Pharaoh to look even stronger, to look invincible…you’ll see what I’ll do to him, and realise I’m far bigger than you ever thought. That’s why I’ve allowed this to happen,’ says the Lord. And it may take the timescale of the book of Exodus (a lifetime or more) even to begin to understand why God has allowed certain things. And sometimes we just won’t understand, and will just have to keep trusting. So Exodus 6.1-3 again:

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.”

So God was saying, ‘I’m about to make myself known in a way I haven’t before.’ Now of course he had made himself known before this – which is why he says, Exodus 6.3:

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty…

Or ‘God All-powerful’. So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew God by that name ‘All-powerful’, because he’d shown his power to keep his promises to them. For example, the power to enable Abraham’s childless wife to have a child. But those promises were on quite a small scale. Whereas what’s coming in Exodus is on a massive scale. So look at Exodus 6.3 again:

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.

But if you know your Bible, that’ll leave you scratching your head because you’ll know that, back in Genesis, people did use that name the LORD (capital L-O-R-D in English Bibles) for God. So what does God mean? Well, he seems to be saying: ‘Before now, people have used that name the LORD for me but they haven’t realised its full significance. And, Moses, that’s what you’re about to see as you watch me in action in the exodus.’

Now Jonathan didn’t have time for this in Exodus 3, but we need to know what this name the LORD is about. It’s the English translation of the Hebrew word ‘Yahweh’. And back in Exodus 3 we’re told that ‘Yahweh’ which means I am. So whenever you see ‘the capital L-O-R-D’, it’s the name of God and literally means ‘I am.’ So what’s the significance of that name? Well, imagine we were playing five-aside football and we haven’t organised ourselves, and a goal goes in against us. So you say ‘Look, who’s in goal?’ and I say, ‘OK, I am.’ Just think what that ‘I am’ means. It means, ‘I am going to be present and active to save us from having goals scored against us.’ And when God says, ‘I am the capital L-O-R-D or Yahweh’, it literally means, ‘I am the I am.’ In other words, ‘I am present and active to do everything needed to save you.’ So now skip to Exodus 6.6-8 where God tells Moses:

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, [the ‘I am present and active to do everything needed to save you’] and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgement. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’

So God is about to make himself known on a massive scale, because he’s about to swing into action in Egypt – the place where Pharaoh thinks this tin pot god of Israel has no jurisdiction. And he’s about to overpower the most powerful ruler and regime in the world to get his people, whom he loves, out. And once he does, they’ll realise he’s far bigger than they ever thought, that he really is the one true God who rules all the earth, that he really does therefore have the power to save from anything and anyone on earth. And that he’s loved them enough to do so. Only in Exodus 6.6 the special word for ‘save’ is redeem. And God redeeming means:
• God saving out of slavery,
• back into relationship with him,
• by paying the price of a great act of judgement.

Which is all there in Exodus 6.6-7:

…from slavery…I will redeem you…with great acts of judgement…[and] I will take you to be my people

So where do we look at all times to know what God is really like? The answer for Old Testament believers was to look back to the exodus, to when God redeemed his people, and to read off that his love for them and his power to save. But the exodus (everything we’re going to see in the rest of this series) was just a massive visual aid or trailer for what Jesus would one day do when he died on the cross and rose again, because the New Testament says things like this (Galatians 3.13):

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law [in other words, from the judgement our sin deserves] by becoming a curse for us [in other words, by taking our judgement on himself in our place]

And it’s this massive visual aid or trailer of the exodus that tells us what that means. Because remember what I said: God redeeming means:
• God saving out of slavery,
• back into relationship with him,
• by paying the price of a great act of judgement.

And on the cross, Jesus saved all who would ever trust in him:
• out of the slavery of being caught under God’s judgement,
• back into relationship with him,
• by paying the price of having our judgement fall on him.

So where do we look at all times to know what God is really like? The answer for New Testament believers is to look back to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Because looking at the cross is how we know God really loves us – even when circumstances seem to say otherwise. And looking at the resurrection is how we know Jesus really is ruling over everything and everyone, and really is able to save us from anything (you name it); from sin, from judgement, from Satan, even from death. That’s where to look to know what God is really like. Right now, he’s still allowing evil to continue, because he’s allowing time to continue for people to hear about Jesus and be brought back into relationship with him before it’s too late. But the clock is ticking towards the end of that time when Jesus comes back to wrap up history and to divide people into those who’ve accepted him as Lord and those who wouldn’t. And on that day, no-one will say (as Pharoah said):

Who is the Lord Jesus that I should obey him?

Instead, the Bible tells us (Philippians 2.11): that at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord either willingly and gladly, or reluctantly and regretfully. Which will it be for you?